A winter scene lantern in a jar

It's never to early to start thinking about crafting for Christmas! Here's how I turned an old jam jar into a pretty lantern with a wintery silhouette theme.

You need:

A jam jar
White acrylic paint and sponge
Thin white card
Scalpel and cutting mat
Yellow tissue paper
Blu Tack Blu Stick 
Blu Tack Foam Pads (small)
Silver ribbon
Bostik All Purpose glue
A tea light candle (I used battery powered)

Instructions:

First make sure that your jam jar is clean and dry. Then pour some white acrylic paint into a flat container, for example a margarine tub lid. Dip a sponge into the paint, dab off the excess on a scrap piece of paper, then use the sponge to coat the jar lightly in paint, using a thicker layer of paint towards the base of the jar. If you accidentally apply too much paint, use a dry tissue to blot the excess and give the paintwork a smoother finish. Leave to dry.

Take a piece of scrap paper and measure around the base of the jar to work out how large your winter scene needs to be. Make a rough sketch of your silhouette. Take a piece of white card and use a pencil to copy your design onto the card. You are working on the back so that the pencil lines will be hidden, so remember that the design will be reversed when it is placed on the jar.

Make sure that your design has plenty of detail, but if you are new to paper cutting don't make it too complicated. I included two houses with windows and a few Christmas style trees. It might help to lightly shade the areas you want to remove.

Then use a scalpel to cut out the design. I found it easiest to start with the smaller more fiddly areas first, like the doors and windows, before making the larger cuts around the outlines of the design. Use a metal ruler to keep the line along the bottom straight. When you have finished the cutting hold the card up to the light to make sure that the composition is even and adjust as necessary.

Glue some scraps of yellow tissue paper behind the windows. I used the Blu Tack Blu Stick to glue the tissue paper in place, it's great because it doesn't make the paper wrinkle and because the application is blue you can see where you have spread the glue before it dries clear.

Then use Blu Tack foam pads to stick the silhouette to the outside of the jar. I used the small sticky pads which measure 5mm by 5mm. Because they are so small they can be used for more delicate crafts, and they are very sticky so will hold firmly in place.

Finally I finished the jar with some silver ribbon around the top. To glue the ribbon in place I used Bostik All Purpose glue which is great for adhering all different types of surfaces. It dries really quickly too which is always useful when crafting.

Finally place a tea light candle inside and watch your silhouette come to life!

This is a collaborative post in association with Bostik.